More pics of SF- Day 1

As Close to Alcatraz as we could get.

The Wharf
Anchored down
My little Sea Lion

Tied down




Trolley Time!!!

The Defenstration Building

Gettin up to be Down!

Chinatown

This guy claims to be in the movie Pursuit of Happyness.

In the Land of Giants

I was nervous. I always am when I go to a big city; I dislike them, or maybe it’s the idea of them. San Francisco was no different. Maybe it’s walking into the unknown; the unfamiliar. That may seem strange for someone that likes to travel about and see new places. But I am not accustomed to Big City life; how to get around on transit systems, places to eat, people and places to avoid. It’s just vastly different from my suburbia.

I would have preferred traveling through smaller towns, but Kellee has been prodding me into going to San Francisco for a while now. So to go north and bypass the SF was not going to happen. Besides that it seems like a shame to say that you’re from California and have never gone to San Francisco. If you’re from California you should want to visit SF, shouldn’t you?

We decided to stay in Fremont a town just outside of San Francisco. It was a quiet little place that reminded me a good deal of Rancho Cucamonga or Upland; so I was a little at ease. The hotel pricing was much cheaper than trying to stay in the city itself. That is unless you’re willing to gamble; my friend Ben will book his hotel room online the night before or the day of on PRICELINE.COM. I am not that daring. I tried last minute booking a couple times all ending in disaster (go to San Diego and try booking a room during Veterans Day weekend…not going to happen).

I was also a little nervous about taking the BART. I have ridden the Metro in Russia and Washington D.C. as well as in my own backyard (yes, you suburbanites, there is a metro in LA), so I should have felt comfortable with the situation. I suppose it was getting “home” that made me nervous, not so much getting to SF. I was worried that we would miss the train or that the bus/trolley system would shut down early and we would be stuck in some unknown part of town for the night. However, the BART system was easy to navigate even though we had to switch trains on the way back to Fremont.

When we got off the BART, exited the underground station and ascended to the street level, I was standing there in awe and wonder. Towering buildings always do that to me. My feet almost didn’t want to move. So I took a deep breath, suppressed my city phobias and began to move forward.

Our first stop was a couple blocks off the beaten path. It probably wasn’t the best area to take my family to, but in hindsight it was probably one of the best places we went to while there. The place was an old abandoned building. On the street level were bums looking for handouts, thieves checking out my backpack and so-called gang members walking around. But the building itself, oh the wonderfully created building itself! Its attraction is objects (dressers, refrigerators, lamps, bathtubs, etc.) hanging off the side of the building making it look like they were being thrown out of the windows. It was an awesome sight; mad props to the artist that thought that one up!

We then walked to the big tourist attraction in San Francisco; the cable cars. These, most natives will tell you, are pure tourism and that the transit system works much better. However, they are historical and they do a very good job of getting you to specific locations, specifically Fisherman’s Wharf and back to our BART station. Anyhow, there were hundreds (and I am not exaggerating) of people waiting to get on one of these trolleys. Now I have been a season pass holder at Disneyland in years past and one thing I’ve learned with lines that long; it’s sometimes better to just walk.

So we walked and walked up and up and up finally getting to Chinatown. Now here’s the thing about Chinatown and fisherman’s wharf and the like; when I first started planning my trip to SF everyone I talked to that had been there offered up the same advice, it went something along this route:

You’re going to SF? Oh I love the place! Make sure you go to Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf (insert popular tourist destination here).

Really? Ok, what should I do there, is there anything I should see?

Well, you should… you should… uhh…well, there’s a lot of little shops. You’ll spend the half your day there just shopping. Oh yeah and they have great food.

Now I am grateful that people took an interest, but shopping and towering over people in this area of town is not really my cup of tea. I want to see the town and check out the sights (main attractions and stuff off the-beaten-path), I want to sit in the cafe that Kerouac once frequented or see the house where the Grateful Dead lived.

So, anyhow, we went to Chinatown. The only thing of real value that we did there was go to the Fortune cookie shop. They make them from scratch right in front of you. Also interestingly enough I am told that fortune cookies started in San Francisco, which makes the whole experience a little cooler. The best part was that they charge you .50 cents to take a picture of the lady making cookies. We were in a line with other tourists to take our picture and also in the process of paying for a bag of cookies when it was our turn. We took the picture and the lady seemed to think we were going to try to get away without her due, so she yelled at us, ".50 cents!". She was very concerned, can't you tell?

We also ate lunch in Chinatown. Kellee thought it was the best Chinese food she has ever had. Unfortunately, I don’t think she ever ate at Chinatown kitchen in Chino or else those vile words would not have spewed from her mouth.

By this time, it was already late in the day and we had walked an extended period of time. In short we were worn out. Now on my little tourist map that I had from my little tourist book, the wharf did not look that far and I suggested that we should walk to it since it was possibly all downhill. Telling this to a pregnant woman with swollen feet who has just endured my out of the way routes up and down hills was not a good idea. Did I mention that we got lost in Chinatown looking for the Fortune cookie shop? So we went for option two- jumping on the trolley.

We found the waiting spot but it took a couple times to figure out how to get on the things. I thought they just stopped and waited for you, but this is not the case! You have to walk out into the street and hope that they see you enough to slow down or maybe then stop. After the third trolley passed by, I jumped out and waived one down. It was crowded, but I managed to find Kellee and Faith good seats while I hung on to the side. We also had our jumbo-sized Jeep stroller with us. This was not a good idea! There is not much room on the cable cars(or buses as I later found out) for these types of luxuries and it became more of a burden to us. Faith loved the it, and I must admit I did as well. This was my second favorite thing to do while in San Francisco, especially at night.

The trolley dropped us off at Fisherman’s Wharf, which was really blocks of tourist shopping. So we went to the tourist type of places, Ghirardelli Square, Cannery row, and Pier 39 all of which consisted of …you guessed it! Shopping and places to eat! If you haven’t guessed by now, Kellee and I aren’t really the touristy shopping type of people. Our idea of a souvenir is a .51 cent pressed penny. I wasn’t impressed with the place. That’s not to say that there were not some cool places to check out. We went to the Arcade Museum which had arcade games that were the precursor to the pinball machine, took a boat tour of the bay, watched the sea lions, rode the two-tiered merry-go round, checked out the street performers, and went into a gallery that had some amazing statues as well as some offbeat work by Dr. Seuss. Probably one of the best things we did while there was to get some coffee and sit on a grassy area overlooking the bay. I really wish we would have done more of that type of thing. Lounging around and enjoying the city the way it was meant to be enjoyed. I suppose what I mean is that SF does not strike me as a fast paced city. It’s a place to take in and savor; in that its anti-LA, which made me like the town even more.

Afterwards we walked around a little more, ate dinner and decided to call it a night. We hit the trolley, which by this time of night there was very little wait and plenty of room. Headed back on the BART and besides getting lost by taking the elevator to the wrong floor and ending up on some scary darkened horror-movie-type subway areas that reeked of urine, we got back to Fremont just fine.

The Mystery Spot

We left the sunny beach side boardwalk to head a little deeper into the Santa Cruz forest and find THE MYSTERY SPOT. Going here was a must on my to do list for the week, it was one of the factors that lead me north as opposed to the oven heated east. Apparently this was on a lot of other tourist list as well. If the boardwalk is the premier spot in Santa Cruz, well then THE MYSTERY SPOT was second runner up.

When we got there the parking lot was full, so we had to find a spot on the side of the highway and walk through the forest for ¼ mile. No big deal, but when we got to the ticket booth reality set in. We would be waiting for about an hour and fifteen minutes to take our tour, and it was a 45 minute tour. This meant that we would not make the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose if we stayed. I was frantic. I actually think that buckets of sweats were pouring out of my pores for 20 minutes as I tried to figure out how we were going to make it to the WMH. This was another must see on my list! I was almost ready to rearrange our plans right then and there so that I could fit in the WMH. We didn’t actually need to spend two full days in San Franciaco did we? It would be boring after one! However, my senses came to me and I decided that we would stop by the WMH on our way home.

Crowded HouseFaith's First Picture! We found a Bannana Slug on are way out! How great is that!

THE MYSTERY SPOT was everything a great roadside attraction should be. The mystery spot is a 150 curcular area where that is a gravitational anamoly. How did this become a spot on the earth where the forces of nature did not apply? Was it due to a magma vortex? Was it due to fault lines, or the earth’s magna? Or too much carbon dioxide permeating from the earth? THe hole in the Ozone? Could it possibly be due to buried UFO under the spot? We are never really told, but I suspect it has more to do with …. And charlatan tricks than Alien spacecraft (athough UFO’s in my mind are surely a great explanation).

I am suppose to be hold ing the bars straight at this angle.

Participating in the fun! I was the smallest person there; the lady on the other end is 6'9".

Truthfully, there are many of these places around the United States along the road. In fact, Knott’s Berry Farm use to have something very similar, but sadly Knott’s did away with this classic as it did SOAPBOX RACERS and the PARACHUTTE RIDE in place of Vomit-projecting thrill rides. No matter, the MYSTERY SPOT made my day! We then headed to our hotel room and to get something to eat.

Santa Cruzin'

Since the days of Lost Boys and Santa Cruz skateboards, I have always been interested in visiting the place of origin. So on our way to San Francisco we decided stop by and visit the town. We awoke at the break of dawn and headed out, but we didn’t get far since we were starving! We planned on stopping for a quick eat at McDonald’s and then reneged on the thought. Somewhere in Downtown SLO would suffice; we thought about a great place that we had breakfast during our previous stopover. Then the pink sign appeared and it immediately became apparent that we must eat breakfast at the Madonna Inn, for this would represent the nature of our vacation.

Faith having tea from real china

The Gaudy Copper Cafe All Done!!!

We hadn’t been to the Madonna Inn since our Honeymoon! The place was still gaudy and beautiful. My breakfast though a little pricey was the best I’ve had it quite some time. The “pick and shovel” bacon was incredible! Faith was super excited because when she went potty they had a very small toilet she could use (she hasn’t seen one of those since our Disney Days); it made her morning! I suppose we lingered about a little too long, but it was fun to hang out, take pictures, and reminisce about the early days of our marriage.

In the Dining Room.Sink FaucetThe thrilling men's waterfall urinal

Haning out in the garden.Pink is the new black! And you thought the tasteless singer owned the place.

Then we stopped in Salinas. There were a couple of odd things I wanted to see and get snap shots of, but I was never able to locate them. Then I saw a billboard advertising The Steinbeck Museum and was salivating to take a stroll. Kellee was of the opposite opinion and stated that she had no desire to see the place. She was right in the respect that this was not on our agenda and we were on a tight schedule. So I relented and promised myself that with a couple more of his books under my belt, I would make my way back up to visit the Museum and town.

The best part about a road trip is getting lost, enjoying the drive. This is what I have been told at least- it’s a lie. We got off in Salinas, but the town would not let us leave; one way streets, railroads, and hidden freeway on ramps were only some of the adversities that lead to my frustration of this town. After we found the freeway I began to rethink my commitment to return.

One of few surprises that delighted my soul and eased my annoyance of Salinas’ bad road planning was being able to stop at Castroville. I wanted to drive through this little farming community but did not see on the map how this would be possible. However, I was looking at the big picture map and not the actual driving directions that Kellee had printed out. Elation exploded onto my face and I could not help but to smile from ear to ear when I saw the sign that Castroville was just ahead.

Castroville is the Artichoke capital of the world and they have a giant artichoke located at a restaurant by the same name. So we briefly stopped (highway traffic delayed us and we had to hurry to make our Santa Cruz appointment) and got a deep-fried artichoke to go.

Taste just like french fries!!!

We made it to Santa Cruz by 11:30, and had to rush!!!! We were stopping for two reasons: The Moscow Circus and the Mystery Spot. The circus was starting at noon, so we were cutting it close. The board walk was filled with people and the parking lots were packed, but we managed to find a spot right away. We jumped out of the truck and practically ran to see the show.

The show was outside on the beach. Kellee being the ever-good mom that she is made sure that we put on suntan lotion. However, I forgot to apply it on cul-de sacs on the top of my forehead and so I walked around the rest of the week looking like I had big red horns on the top of my head. I noticed while walking around SF that there were a couple of times mothers would cringe in horror and turn their strollers with crying babies in the opposite direction I was walking and break out into a brisk run…I’m not quite sure but this might have had something to do with the horns.

Anyhow, we watched the Moscow Circus on the Board walk of Santa Cruz. Faith was not impressed or interested; she just wanted to watch the bright colored ski lift above our heads. The costumes were a little risqué; I liked them, kellee did not. The best part of the show was the girl with the hula hoops. I suppose more than all the other performers this was the most amazing to watch because it hit closest to home. Somewhere in my adulthood I have lost the ability to get the hoops to circulate around my torso, so to see this young girl not only do one but dozens and on different limbs at the same time was quite a sight to see. The clowns as always were stupid. The two old guys that could balance each other on their heads was pretty fantastic as well. Overall, it was a fun show to watch and a great way to spend the afternoon on the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Did I mention it was Free! That always adds an increase in fun.

Quite a Crowd for a sunny Sunday

Silly, Scary Clown

Two-heads are better than one!

The notorious Boardwalk that those ill-fated Lost boys made their stomping grounds was not as exciting as I thought it would be. We walked around, but the rides and food were ridiculously over priced (the rides were around $4 and up per person). To be honest it just looked like a Boomers on steroids. I suppose if you lived there and had a pass it would be a grand time, but I wasn’t interested. So we moved on.